Random Numbers
by lilkawa
Summary: Martha calls the Doctor by mistake...
1. Chapter 1

_Doctor Who_ doesn't belong to me.

**Random Numbers**

Martha Jones watched enviously as the Red team packed their gear and went off into the field. She sat at her duty station as the Sergeant had called it – the switch board actually, and to make it worse it was the night shift – and wished she could be going out with them. She was part of the Red team and when there was an emergency like there seemed to right now somewhere in the Midlands, Martha was supposed to have been one of the people packing gear and getting ready to see some action.

But no. Not today. Not even next week. She was being punished. Like it had been her fault that the man they had found in the hills on their last outing had been armed. Accidental discharge is what it was called. Martha had accidentally discharged her weapon, which she wasn't supposed to, at least not until she was field certified. It was stupid, Martha had told herself another of times, if they weren't allowed to shoot in the field, why were they given guns at all? She had told her Sergeant as much, and Bill Waters had laughed in her face.

'This is the army, my dear', he'd reminded, 'a special part of it yes, but technically still army and you follow orders.'

Martha wondered for the millionth time what had possessed her to join UNIT. She had needed money to help her complete her medical training and she'd thought that UNIT would give her that, plus she believed in their cause… okay she believed in what little she'd heard about it. She had received the money she needed and now on top of being a medical student she was an agent…soldier in training. In theory it all worked out very well and hopefully one day she would even be able to study an alien body and understand their physiology.

But this week, all that seemed very unlikely. In fact it seemed impossible. What good could she do answering calls, most of which were prank calls at that?

'Look on the bright side, Doctor Jones,' Walters had told her. 'At least you even get to know about the situations. Many of your colleagues in training don't even know when and where we go. You do, so count yourself lucky. You're in the inner circle.'

000

Two nights later, Martha was about ready to run mad. The phone never stopped ringing, there were so many weird people in the UK and they saw way too many weird things. She'd been given a manual on how to answer the questions that people posed after they reported the 'weird' things they'd seen and it was full of ridiculous questions that she sometimes found it hard to even ask them.

I need a break, she thought to herself.

She stood up from her station, and told Irving, the guy who was working there with that she was going to the bathroom.

000

She needed to talk to another sane human being. Someone who wasn't looking for dead bodies, aliens or any such things. Someone who was worried about not having a date on Friday night, someone who was worried about having a ladder in her tights, someone like Tish.

Martha pulled out her phone to call Tish; she should have thought of this earlier. If anyone could cheer her up and make her feel better about her pathetic work it was Tish.

000

The Doctor was standing in the TARDIS staring at the controls, there seemed to be screw loose and the TARDIS was making noises that were driving him mad. He knew that it really wasn't about the noises; the real problem was that he was bored. Even outthinking the Darens hadn't excited him as much as he thought it would. He needed something more exciting to do.

000

The Doctor was still thinking about what he was going to do to relieve his boredom; Captain Harkness was in the kitchen making something, when the silence was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing.

The Doctor stared absently at the white box that housed the telephone. It was an old white telephone, with the old ringtone, that had been installed in the TARDIS about fifty years ago and in that time it had only rang once.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Jack called, after the Doctor had let it go on ringing for a while.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Tish," the voice, female on the other side said, "I hope this isn't a bad time."

"Tish?" the Doctor asked in surprise. "This isn't Tish."

"Where is she? Put her on the phone."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor replied. "I know who you are but this isn't Tish, whoever she or he is, or one of their friends."

"Who are you and what have you done with my sister?"

"Nothing," the Doctor didn't even why he was defending himself to the unknown female. "You must have called a wrong number."

Martha was about to reply but she decided to look at the number she'd dialed and saw that it wasn't Tish's after all. "I'm sorry," she told the man and would have hang up but he spoke, "I'm the Doctor, who are you?"

"Seriously? You call yourself the Doctor?"

"I don't call myself the Doctor," he was defensive. "That's my name."

'Fine, you don't have to tell me your real name," Martha replied. "My name's Martha."

"Martha," he repeated. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while. What is it that you do Martha?"

Martha couldn't believe he was asking her any questions but she answered him anyway. "I'm a doctor," she said, "I'm trying to become a doctor, that is, but I work with some government body."

"Government body?" he asked. "Sounds mysterious."

"Oh, it's very mysterious," Martha assured him. "So what do you do?"

"Oh, nothing too interesting," he replied, "nothing really that is… I …uh…"

"You won't tell me your name or what you do," Martha said. "I guess there's nothing else to talk about."

"My name really is The Doctor," he insisted, "and as to what I do -". Martha interrupted him, "Ah, sorry, I have to go now; it was nice talking to you."

000

The Doctor was smiling when he put the phone down. "Who was it?" Jack asked him. "Although I know I shouldn't be, I'm surprised that old relic still works."

"It was a wrong number," the Doctor replied. "And you'd be surprised at how well it works."

"You look happier than you did before," Jack said.

000


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

000

"What are you doing?"

The Doctor looked up at Jack who was looking at him in fascination. "Trying to find her number," he mumbled.

"Did you just say that you were trying to find her number?"

"Yep."

"You can't get callerID on that phone," Jack told him. "It's a relic."

"Maybe you can't but I can." The Doctor continued flashing his screwdriver at the wires he had cut open. "Somewhere in these wires is her number and I'm going to find it."

"I thought you said it was a wrong number. Why is it so important that you speak to her all of a sudden?"

The Doctor thought of not replying because he really didn't have a reason for calling Martha he didn't even know her at all. "It's the most interesting thing that has happened here in hours."

"You're calling some random person because you're bored?"

The Doctor shrugged. Put like that it sounded so…silly but he'd done far sillier things in his life and he usually ended up having fun. Trying to get Martha on the line was helping him to pass time, besides she'd mentioned something about UNIT, those people always needed help.

000

Martha made her way to her flat. It had been along boring day, it had been a total waste of her time answering those prank calls. In fact the only interesting thing that had happened had been her calling that wrong number. The guy at the other end of the line had sounded interesting. She had looked at the number after she had hung up; she couldn't recognise the area code and she had resisted the urge to call him back. She didn't need some stranger to think that she was some sort of stalker with no life.

000

"There, I think I've got it." The Doctor said.

"Great," Jack replied. "Dial the number and let's find out."

000

"You didn't call me back," Tish complained. "I waited and waited."

"Sorry," Martha said. "I did try to call you but I must have misdialed because I got this guy instead."

"So, what do you think I should do now?"

"Take some time off and go for the interview," Martha said.

"But what if they find out and I get the sack?" Tish was worried. She really hated her job but the pay was great, more than great in fact.

"Then don't do it."

"You're not being much help here," Tish complained.

"You have to take a chance," Martha reminded her. "Aren't you the one always telling me to take a chance?"

"Hang on," Tish suddenly remembered Martha's words. "You called this guy instead?

"Yes," Martha agreed. "I don't know…he sounded kind of weird."

"Serial killer sort of weird, or mischievous sort of weird?"

"Definitely mischievous." She could imagine him having a twinkle in his eyes as he spoke.

"So what did you talk about, where's he from?"

"We didn't actually talk much; I had to get back to work."

"So, you have his number right?" Tish asked. "Call him back."

"I can't do that," Martha said. "What would I say to him…hi, I just wanted to say hi?"

"It sounds to me like the most interesting phone conversation in a while, apart from those from yours truly, so I vote that you call him back."

"No," Martha said. "I'm just going to get something to eat and go to sleep."

000

Martha rushed out of the shower and reached for her phone. It's probably Mum, she thought to herself, as she flipped it open. "Hello," she said breathlessly.

"Hello, is this Martha?"

"Yes, who's this?"

"It's the Doctor."

"Oh, hi."

"So, you called me earlier today," he said, "I just wanted to return the favour."

"Okay," she said uncertainly.

"So I was sitting here in the TARDIS bored," the Doctor continued, he didn't notice Jack wince at his choice of words, "and I thought, why not call you back."

"Really?"

"Yes," the Doctor was getting quite animated. "I would have called you back immediately, well almost immediately, but you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find your number. I actually just got it a few minutes ago."

"I see."

"So, Martha, any news?" The Doctor was quite excited. He liked meeting new people and finding out all about them, it always led to some sort of adventure.

"No," Martha told him. She couldn't believe he had only called her because he was bored. "And I'm actually quite tired, so thanks for calling me back. Goodnight."

000

"She hung up on me." The Doctor listened to the dial tone in shock. "She actually hung up on me. I don't believe this."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't told her that you called her because you were bored," Jack told him.

"I didn't say that."

Jack shrugged. "It sounded like that to me."

He really hadn't told Martha that he was calling because he was bored, the Doctor thought to himself, had he?

000


End file.
